Xfinite and Eros Now, the leading South Asian OTT entertainment platform owned by global entertainment company Eros STX Global Corporation (NYSE: ESGC), announced that they have deepened their partnership with Xfinite’s Mzaalo platform, which is gamified video will have 10 million users by the end of the year. The partnership strengthens Eros Now’s presence in Advertising Video on Demand (AVOD), an evolving segment of the Indian streaming market with significant growth potential, and enables Eros Now to further expand its core subscription service Video on Demand (SVOD). The partnership also adds 25 premium linear TV feeds and VOD platforms and plans to further expand to 200 content partners. Given Xfinite’s innovative business model, the ErosSTX agreement also puts ErosSTX in a leading position in the growth of digital assets and the use of blockchain technology. Algorand will serve as the basic blockchain infrastructure as Xfinite has chosen a scalable blockchain to accommodate its accelerated adoption.
Eros Now to Fully Monetized the Platform
Commenting on the announcement, Ali Hussein, CEO of Eros Now said, “One of our strategic priorities is to fully monetize the Eros Now platform. An important aspect of our strategy is to expand into ad-supported streaming media. This type of partnership is real.” does that. We have the opportunity to benefit from more than 224 million registered Eros Now users who are fans of our content products, but who also pay attention to the price. Mzaalo has joined our already huge Eros Now sales partner ecosystem, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea, BSNL, Tata Sky, Apple, Amazon and Roku – to name just a few: ErosSTX sees the structure of the Mzaalo contract specifically fixed and guaranteed Cash payments before and Mzaalo has the right combination of variable income sharing with changing We represent a growth opportunity for this new partnership. “
Mr Swaneet Singh, CEO of Xfinite Global Plc, said, “Xfinite aims to revolutionize digital media by bringing forth innovations to customer experience, data-driven engagement, and ecosystem economics for the benefit of the community, we offer a blockchain-based solution, powered by Algorand, to ensure transparency and re-establish trust in the digital world. We are extremely excited to be partnering with ErosSTX as part of our journey.”
“Eros has a visionary understanding of how blockchain can be leveraged for new opportunities in the media space. Broad blockchain adoption can only be achieved through the creation of products that are tangible and inclusive for any consumer, no matter what region they are in or what their background may be,” said Sean Ford, COO of Algorand. “With major partnerships with organizations that have millions of users, we are excited to support Mzaalo’s new applications and welcome them to the Algorand community.”
Mzaalo is a decentralized application (dApp) based on Algorand blockchain technology that executes gamified streaming services, provides more than 15,000 hours of high-quality content and a new mechanism for interacting with content and other consumers. Mzaalo dApp gives consumers free access to premium content, including films, original drama series, short video content from Eros Now and other media platforms, and a range of interactive features. Mzaalo consumers reward their participation through improved social participation features and innovative incentive mechanisms (including digital token XET tokens).
Xfinite is an entertainment platform based on the XET digital token, a standard Algorand asset. As the native currency of the Xfinite ecosystem, XET tokens offer unique value exchange and governance mechanisms for all parties involved, including users, brands and influencers as well as content producers. The XET token offers many advantages to its holders, including the exchange of unique values and the opportunity to take advantage of the economic incentives that the Xfinite platform must offer. Mzaalo is Xfinite’s first entertainment application to offer consumers free access to premium content including movies, original series, short film content and a range of interactive features from Eros Now and other media platforms. Mzaalo consumers can receive rewards for their participation, which can be used for fan tokens, goods, games and charitable donations through more than 500 brand partners.
By “tokenizing” attention and engagement, consumers are rewarded for higher ratings and brands and influencers are given new ways to interact with their audiences. In this new ecosystem, consumers are treated equally as partners in the relationship, and brands and influencers can significantly increase their return on investment through ultra-goal-oriented and measurable user engagement. The cooperation between ErosSTX and Mzaalo is the first in the global OTT area.
India and the global emerging markets are characterized by an overcrowded digital marketing space, and as brands move from traditional media such as print and television to digital growth, the digital marketing space is growing exponentially. In 2020 India has nearly 700 million internet users nationwide. It is estimated that this number will grow to over 974 million users by 2025, indicating the enormous potential of the internet services market in this South Asian country. India is now on the cusp of a great revolution, with advances in digital marketing and brands trying to outperform the urban market. The tokenization method provided by Mzaalo by participating in monetization is very suitable for Indian digital consumers who currently have a wide range of content to choose from.
About Eros STX Global Corporation:
Eros STX Global Corporation (ErosSTX) is a global entertainment company that acquires, co-produces and distributes films, digital content and music in a variety of formats including drama, TV and OTT to the surrounding consumer world. Following the merger with STX Entertainment in July 2020, Eros International Plc was renamed Eros STX Global Corporation and merged two international media and entertainment groups. The combination of one of India’s largest OTT players and world-class studios as well as one of Hollywood’s fastest-growing independent media companies have created an entertainment giant with offices in more than 150 countries. At the intersection of the most dynamic and fastest-growing global markets (including the United States, India, the Middle East, Asia, and China), ErosSTX delivers high-quality feature film and storyline content through a variety of celebrity-driven platforms. The company also owns the fast-growing OTT platform Eros Now, which owns the rights to more than 12,000 Hindi and regional language films, and had more than 19 million paying subscribers as of March 31, 2021. For more information, please visit ErosSTX.com.
About the Eros Now:
Eros Now is a division of Eros STX Global Corporation, the world’s leading Indian OTT platform with more than 19 million paying users and 224 million registered users from more than 150 countries/regions around the world. It offers endless entertainment, houses one of the largest movie libraries (more than 12,000 digital titles) and an unprecedented number and quality of high-quality original series and music videos. Eros Now also has an extensive library of short film content with a total of more than 4,400 short film videos including trailers, exclusive interviews with original shorts and marketing shorts. Eros Now was named “Best OTT Platform of 2019” by the British Asian Media Awards. The platform also won original content and marketing awards at SCREENXX 2020. To access Eros Now please visit: www.erosnow.com or download the app.
About Xfinite:
Xfinite is a blockchain-based platform that aims to restore trust between consumers, content creators and publishers. By using audience-based rewards, the Xfinite ecosystem is helping the media and entertainment industry fight advertising fraud by increasing transparency and creating new participation habits. Xfinite has formed various partnerships with global companies to drive innovation and create new use cases for blockchain technology. Recent partners include: Dailyhunt with 280 million active users; SpiceJet flies more than 60 million passengers through India every year; Eros Now has 36.2 million paying users and 216 million registered users.
